


Tar and Pearls

by Matrya



Series: The Disrepute of Nat and Jim [1]
Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Episode: s04e21 Last Week's Fights This Week's Tights, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-10
Updated: 2011-06-10
Packaged: 2018-08-31 20:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8591635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matrya/pseuds/Matrya
Summary: Jess approaches Lorelai. It goes better and/or worse than expected.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in June 2011 and it went live on the Pit on June 10, 2011. Now, it lives here.

She's getting her third plate of food when he ever-so-casually stops beside her.

It takes her a minute to notice, loading up her plate with turkey and potato salad. When she does, she's almost bumping into him. "God," she yelps when she turns to go back to her table. "Make a freaking noise!"

"Right."

She shakes her head, taking a deep breath, before starting to walk around him.

"Wait. Lorelai."

"What?" she asks, against her better judgment, as she turns back to him. Then, noticing the lack of distance between them, she steps back.

His hands bury themselves deep into his pockets and his hair flops into his eyes.

Lorelai quells the motherly urge to push back awkward bangs, busying her hands with holding her plate. "Well?"

He rambles something so quietly she can't hear over the rattle and din of Kirk's DJing and the festivities.

"Gonna need an interpreter, Jess."

Taking a deep breath, he says again, "Thanks, for what you told Liz."

She frowns. "What I told Liz?"

"For lying to her," he clarifies, refusing to meet her eyes. "When you said I didn't...do what I did."

"I didn't lie," she replies, looking down.

He won't look at her either, finding the decorations entertaining enough.

Lorelai sighs. "Okay, I did. A little. What you did to Rory, that's inexcusable." After a deep breath. "But I'm not you, Jess."

"What?" he asks sharply, looking at her for the first time.

"I'm not going to break Liz's heart for my own selfish reasons."

"I don't think that's fair."

"I'm not your biggest fan, but you aren't part of my life anymore. I don't have a reason to mess things up for you."

"I'm trying to be a decent person here."

She shakes her head. "Try harder, Jess. Rory can forget about you, and Luke can forgive you. But I'm just going to pity you because you're still that irresponsible kid who got himself kicked out of his mom's, who broke my daughter's arm, who ran off."

"I'm really not."

"Which is why every time you saw Rory last time you were in town, you acted like a mature and responsible adult," she countered. "It's why you talked to her and told her it wasn't her fault."

He shakes his head. "I don't have to listen to this."

Lorelai shakes her head, staring at him hard. "No, you don't, but you should. All you're doing is making sure you end up sad and pathetic and alone. You had a real chance when your mom sent you here. You could've started over, you could've been someone, but instead you chose to be destructive to yourself and everything in your path.

"That includes my daughter. So, please, excuse me for not giving you one more chance. You haven't proven anything, Jess, and you've had so many chances that it really just boggles the mind."

"Huh," he starts. "I thought I was proving humility."

Before Lorelai can respond, Jess is stalking off.

If she doesn't see him for the rest of the night, she doesn't admit she was looking.

However, months later, when her daughter is crying in her lap about Dean, hungover and depressed, she learns this: Jess tried to ruin her daughter again.

She brushes back a bit of Rory's hair and tries not to think everything since is her fault.


End file.
